“Without financial and scholarship support, I, along with hundreds of students like me, would never have the opportunity to know and enjoy the wonderful academic opportunity Wittenberg provides to all its students. Perhaps I can appreciate those opportunities better than most. I grew up in the former Soviet state of Uzbekistan where I was among a religious and ethnic minority that makes up only 7 percent of the population. In addition to that disadvantage, being a woman meant that, for me, there was no hope of furthering my education.”

Wittenberg offered me the chance to become all I ever dreamed – to study molecular biology and help develop the great medicines of the future. My mother and brother had a hard time accepting my decision to leave and come to America, but the yearning for education was burning within me. Because of generous gifts like yours, I am the first in my family to ever attend college.

One doesn’t have to be from far away to have such dreams and ambitions or to feel the desire to grow and learn. Nor do students have to be from far away countries to share the great concern about how to pay for their education. These dreams and worries are present everywhere. The need for support – and the promise that support offers – are very real, very great and very urgent.

The Wittenberg Fund makes an education here possible. Wittenberg has literally given me my freedom. For others, the journey may not be as dramatic or adventurous, but the value of your gifts make no less an impact on hundreds of lives. Thank you for what you have done, and please give generously to The Wittenberg Fund.” Anjelika Gasilina ’10, biochemistry/molecular biology major, Russian and Central Eurasian Studies minor.

–Anjelika Gasilina ’10